USAID

USAID

Before our last trip to Honduras I have never heard of USAID.  Maybe you hadn't thought much about it before either until it made recent headline news.

My only personal reference for USAID is that when we were in Guapinol, I noticed many of the houses were made of USAID plastic.  

When we work to create stability in other places, we maintain stability in the US. 

In Guapinol, many houses look like the picture above.  No running water, little to no electricity.  The plastic provided by USAID likely gave them hope to stay and not relocate to the United States.   

In Honduras, there has been a 60% drop in student enrollment since 2018.  Many of these students are now in the United States. 

I can understand why a teenager making a few dollars a day would be enticed by the opportunity to work in the United States. 

After a little research a learned about some of the ways USAID works in Honduras.  I was going to share some of these directly from the source  but their website is now shutdown.  But google did provide the following

USAID mission in Honduras

USAID works to increase the security of vulnerable populations in urban, high-crime areas; sustainably reduce extreme poverty for vulnerable populations in western Honduras; and create a more transparent and accountable national government   

If we truly want to address immigration, I believe we have to BOTH address the border AND the root cause of immigration.

I am not saying USAID is perfect but I do think it plays an important role in development.  I'd invite you to learn more about some of their projects both good AND bad but it's currently challenging without access to their website.  

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